AmyUD06

Those stairs look more like an electrical conduit rack to me...like this: http://number-one-electric.com/Vertical%20Conduit%20Rack.jpg

With the recent news about BGE removing Big Bad Wolf at the end of the summer, I decided to take a trip down there. Ended up going alone due to the short notice. I hadn't been there since 1997, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I hit the road at around 5:30 AM on Tuesday and took the scenic route (US-13 using the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel) from northern Delaware down to Virginia, namely to avoid the messes that are the Baltimore and DC beltways. Five hours later, I pull into the entrance road to the park and am faced with quite a backup. I began to get worried about park traffic, but it ended up not being a big deal in the end. A hold up at the main entrance due to their firearm-storage system not functioning properly delayed my entry by 45 minutes, but a supervisor in Guest Relations made it right with an exit pass for Big Bad Wolf. Head in, use the exit pass, get a ride on the 2nd row. I work my way around the park in a counter-clockwise loop, hitting all of the coasters (all ride reviews at the end) and finally back to BBW. Waited for the front row, and then headed out to check in to my hotel and grab a bite to eat at around 4:00. Got back to the park around 6:30 and took in the “Emerald Beat” Irish dance show, which was good but far too short for how far apart the show times are spaced. Headed back to BBW and began the marathoning. Alternated rides on the back and front rows for another 4 rides, the final being a night ride on the front row. Satisfied, I made my way out of the park (picking up some souvenirs on the way) to beat the rush went back to the hotel and crashed. Wednesday morning I began my trek back to Delaware. Along the way, I saw that the Delaware State Fair appeared to have a coaster. From the road, it looked like a Schwarzkopf Looping Star, but upon closer inspection it was just a Ring of Fire and some unknown portable coaster. Didn't go in, but maybe one of you can identify it by the photos below. Ride Reviews: -Alpengeist: 20 minute wait. This was the new ride the last time I was at the park, and was just as good as ever. Rode the back row, nice a forceful. Probably tied with Raptor for my favorite B&M Invert. Raptor is a more forceful ride with a better layout, IMHO, but the scenery and some elements bring Aplie up to mark. -Loch Ness Monster: 4 train wait. Front row ride, good as always. Forgot how big the tunnel helix was. Great operations got the trains as close to crossing in the interlocking loops as possible since they added the trims. -Griffon: 25 minute wait. Front row, edge seat. This was my first time on any B&M Dive Machine, and I have to say the hold and the drop was awesome. Honestly the ride was kind of boring after that. I'd like to see B&M do more with the drop gimmick, maybe use a narrower train to enable a better layout. The splashdown was cool when watching from aside, but while on the ride it was just like any other braking section and IMHO added nothing to the actual ride experience. -Apollo's Chariot: 20 minute wait, back row. First time on this coaster, and I liked it. Decent pops of air and I liked the helix and the zig-zag at the end, but nothing screamed “great” about this ride. -Big Bad Wolf: Exit-pass walk on (2nd row), 35 minutes (front row), 20 minutes (back row), 20 minutes (front row), 2 train wait (back row), 3 train wait (front row). Awesome as always, and there's not much more to say about this ride. Operations were hit or miss. In the afternoon they were great, sometimes with ZERO stacking while running 3 trains, but in the evening the ride ops seemed to be more concerned with when who was going on break and ended up with all trains stacked on more than one occasion. Either way, the ride will certainly be missed. Coaster Counts: -BBW x6 -Apollo x1 -Alpengeist x1 -LNM x1 -Griffon x1 -Grover's (whatever) x0 Non-coasters: None Park food eaten: None And for some reason, my photos appeared in the proper order in the preview, but not in the final thing. If you care about sequence, just scroll to the bottom then scroll up.[/i][/b] Man do I hate waking up this early... This was my "scenery" most of the way of the scenic route. This, and suburban shopping centers in southern Delaware and Maryland. Entrance to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I don't know why but this thing is cool to me. Going into the light... Almost there. This doesn't look too appealing. Stuck in traffic, might as well take some pictures. On the way to BBW, couldn't pass up some photo ops. And why I'm here. And again. I still don't know what this is like, and wasn't spending time to find out that day. Forgot how good you were. Though the trees. No caption needed. Going down. Hello there Nessie. You didn't get much love from people today... I suck with captions. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. 3 coasters, 1 picture. Apollo was next, but photo ops from inside the park are limited so this one is here by itself. One more ride before I go to check in at the hotel. Took some more of Apollo on the way back in. The inside of the theater for the Emerald Beat show. Back to BBW for the final four rides. Farewell, old friend.

Standard Operating Procedures Oh, trust me, working in LE I know what a SOP is, I was asking what sort of SOP he could've possibly been referring to.[/i]

If the OEM is defunct (like so many people seem to think Arrow is - they aren't) they can. Even if not, they certainly don't need approval of the OEM unless it's still warrantied in some shape or form. If the OEM isn't supporting the product, they have no say in what an end-user does with it. What you're proposing there is like saying that if Ford says you can't use aftermarket parts on their cars, you can't use your car period if you do or that it now somehow becomes "illegal" or "unsafe" from that in and of itself. SOP...what SOP? Yes, insurance and/or government inspectors will still have to look over the ride. What's the big hurdle there? That's what testing is for. I'm surprised it's only been brought up a few times, but the case of Steel Phantom at Kennywood is a prime example of where the "they can't modify it/replace parts) because Arrow isn't around or says it's okay" argument fails. Kennywood is a much smaller park, with a much smaller budget, but have (over the course of several years) re-trained and re-tracked almost the entire ride with Morgan parts. Anyone who thinks BGE couldn't do the same with BBW is insane. I'm also quite surprised that there haven't been more arguments of "just be happy the park is still open since InBev once said they didn't want anything to do with the parks," knowing this site. And BTW, Arrow and all of it's assets, including trademarks, patents, and equipment designs were absorbed into S&S. If S&S choose not to supply parts for Model X anymore, then they can't tell parks that they're not allowed to seek parts anywhere.

Can't get parts for trains? Vekoma trains. Can't get parts for brakes? Vekoma. Can't get electronics? Custom. Can't get parts for the lift hill system? Any halfway decent fabricator could mesh any electric motor to it. The only half-way valid "mechanical reason" they may have is structural integrity, but even that is repairable. Vekoma SFCs use the same gauge track. Everyone says "they understand the reasoning." There has been no reasoning. Just "it's old." Coasters don't have "born-on-dating" or "expiration dates," It's all up to how much effort the park wants to put into maintaining them. And for a coaster with consistently high ridership and no major problems affecting current operations, I can't see why they wouldn't keep this ride. I'd much rather see them spend $10-15m refurbing this ride, if it even needs it, than put up some new B&M. I'm sure I'm not alone. BBW and LNM are the signature rides of this park. When you think about this park, you don't think of Griffon, Alpengeist or...you know, off the top of my head I can't recall any other coasters they have. And that's sad. I'm torn. Part of me really wants to go this year to get a final ride. Part of me wants to give the park the shaft and deny them my business. Unfortunately it doesn't answer anything the press release didn't say, except the part about LNM being "safe for now because we can't think of anything better to do with the land." In all likelyhood it won't do much, but it certainly couldn't hurt. What would it hurt? Someone loses a few minutes of their life writing a letter or e-mail. I don't mean to sound like an ass, but is there ever a time that you DO feel voicing concerns to a park is appropriate? Negative park experience? "You went on a busy day/had a rare bad experience/should've looked at the website to realize Q-bots are a ripoff before you went to the park/etc." Disagree with ride removal/installation? "They're pros and know much better than you." You seem like a complete apologist and in your mind no park can ever do wrong (unless it's Hard Rock or outside of the US). Makes one wonder about that line at the bottom of every page about being " in no way affiliated" with the companies. Anyway, if it's making the front page of local news there's a lot more than a few websites of "whiny coaster enthusiasts" that are disenchanted about this. And I'd say a large part of their successful formula is NOT removing major rides that still draw large crowds. You're right, we don't. What we do know is that there plenty of land available for them to use if they wanted to.

IIRC, the rules for the Replace Laser contest were: -No inverted or hyper coasters of any type. -Max height of 205 feet. -Track must stay within blue box. -Supports CANNOT enter purple box. -No terraforming allowed I think that was it...

Not necessarily, if they use multiple block sections.

Just keep it on you in a pocket. If the phone is really worth the ridiculous prices Apple charges for that feature-deprived gimmick, it can handle a little splash.

My guesses: -3 Inversions -90 degree drop -55mph top speed -2480 feet of track -4 negative G's going around that outside loop. -77ft peak height.

Are you going on a weekday? There's no way you could possibly need two days to do this park. I went last year on the Wednesday before 4th of July and rode every coaster and some flats by 4 PM (got there no more than 15 minutes after opening at 10). And weather was great. Granted that was without Diamondback, but that will add an 1-1.5 hours at most to the trip. Even if you were to do their water park and re-ride some coasters, you should be fine with one day.

All of my rides on both Wicked Twister and Voodoo/Possessed have been different. I've seen no consistency at all.

Andyuk: I see where you might think that, but the forces acting on the supports for a slow-moving section of the course like a lift hill would still be vertical (gravity and gravity alone), and not along a slant like your images imply. The image on the left would put a lot more stress on the joint between the footer and the beam.

It doesn't seem to have the 2nd station installed...I can't see how'd they efficiently run 3 trains without it.

Here's my entry. A few notes: 1. The G's will sometimes spike over the allowed limits when viewed at less than 100% speed. I blame this on NL. 2. The "barriers" in the launch tunnel are supposed to be holograms, but NL doesn't really allow for that sort of thing so the train appears to "crash through". Enjoy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "As your soul begins to leave your body, you see flashes of firey torment. You're flipped upside down and are boosted through darkness until coming to a stop before the gates to heaven. Suddenly, you'll hear the unmistakable laughter of the devil and are shot at 60 miles an hour straight to hell. Once there, you'll experience a 540 degree ascending helix. You're given a moment to catch your breath before being turned on your head ,dropping 100 feet and feeling over 5 gs as you are again inverted before rocketing towards the sky. You'll catch a glimpse at heaven before being turned around, dropping straight down and twisting into a 360 degree heartline-roll. As you slow down, you notice that you're again climbing...was this all just the devil's cruel joke?" Featuring a 60 mile-per-hour launch in just seconds and five gut-wrenching inversions, along with high-tech audio/visual effects in the rides several tunnels, HELLFIRE just may leave you wishing you were no longer amongst the living... Mike240SX - Hellfire (LIM Coaster Contest).nltrack

Except when trying to be manufacturer-authentic...blarg to Primier's over-supporting!

Of currently existing coasters, El Toro easily. If we're including past coasters too, tied for first would be Hercules. Before the "holding brake" on the drop of course. The Beast (again, pre-trimmed) is another very very close second.

You've got something against fast lift hill coaster designs, don't you? I kid, I kid.

The short trains are necessary on extreme drop angles and very quick transitions. Otherwises, the Gs on the last car/row would be too intense. On a ride like Maverick or Farenheit, if the train were to be 5 or 6 cars long the last car would FLY over the crest of the drop hill. Think about how much negative G you already get in the back row...yeah. Mess around in NL and you'll see what I mean.

I'd advise taking Route 35 from Keansburg to Point if you're not in a rush. It takes a while and is kinda not-scenic until you get to Belmar, but from there down its a nice leisurely drive a block or two from the beach. Otherwise, the GSP is probably your only bet if you're not familiar with the backroads.

That's what happens when you do Auto-Supports before adjusting terrain height in the terraformer.

My old strategy was to get there at opening, and do the water park until around 3-5 PM. It always worked out well and I rarely had to miss any rides I wanted to go on due to lines. Last year, I tried something new. Upon arrival at park opening, I blitzed every coaster and many flats. It took less than 2 hours. Went to the water park from noon until they closed at 7 and had almost no lines for any of the slides towards the end of that time. Re-rode Riptide Run (The one with multiple pools connected by slides, cut in to the hill) like 8 times in a row. Then we went back to the rides side and got at least one more ride on each coaster and several flats before the park closing. I found it worked out really well and you were in the water for the hottest part of the day. Either way, you'll do all right. Coming from SFGA, lines are virtually nothing by comparison, and even on weekends you'll never wait for any ride as long as you could at SFGA. Operations are just that much better and capacity is simply less. I'd still recommend going on a weekday to avoid a lot of the Philadelphia crowd that shows up on weekends and can lessen your experience. As for water park comparisons... Hurricane Harbor is nice. I was working at the park when it first opened and was there all time time after or before shift. Aside from the one new slide tower they added two years after opening, it's been stagnant. There's a decent amount of things to do, and the "island" scenery is nice, but the layout is crap and rides are very spaced apart. That said, Wildwater Kingdom is still leaps and bounds beyond. More slide towers, greater variety in slides, two wave pools, two lazy rivers (which unfortunately are not a method of transportation). The layout has gotten weird in the past few years with several dead ends, and there isn't much in the way of structural scenery. At the end of the day, HH alone costs as much as a ticket for both parks at Dorney, and there's more to do at WWK alone. Both have poor layouts (albeit for different reasons). Structural/themeing scenery shouldn't be what you're looking at while at a water park anyway.

Well, if you hope to sell it in the US, you will need a copyright attorney. I don't mean to belittle you, and I'm sure you're a well-respected expert over there in your country, however you are obviously unfamiliar with trade practices here in the US. Here, if your product is anywhere near quality and/or popular and not trademarked, someone will rip it off, claim it their own, and then sue YOU for copyright infringement. Which is why you will need an attorney, to ensure that you have the IP trademarked before you even show it in the US let alone sell a single copy. Have you even tried e-mailing the legal departments of any companies? Here's contact info for Cedar Fair corporate: http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/company/contactinfo.cfm One of those e-mail addresses should be able to direct you to the legal department. Of course, a thumbs up from them in an e-mail isn't enough. You'll need notarized statements of permission to use, and likely a contract stating that you will not use it any negative manner and any possible royalties back to the company from your sales. While an attorney isn't necessary to enter into a contract, for someone as clearly unfamiliar with business practices in the US, it would certainly be advised that you use one. I'm sure I sound like a dick but that's not my intent. I don't really know what kind of help you're looking for here. Any one of us telling you "it's okay, don't worry about it" doesn't have to face the consequences and is in no place to tell you that. If you want to be on the 110% up-and-up, you're GOING to have to contact the legal departments of the copyright holders for any properties you wish to use and get official, written documents showing permission. Or, you could do what most do, and do what you want and hope nothing comes back to bite you; webcomics use trademarked names and likenesses all the time.

False. See El Toro at SFGA.

No offense, but if making long-distance calls is "too expensive," how do you plan on getting this thing published? Write it using whatever names you want. If publishing time comes around, your attorney (who you will have to ensure the publishing company isn't going to screw out out of royalties/intellectual property rights) will advise you as to what you are and aren't allowed to use and may contact the places in question in an attempt to secure permission to use their names. You sound like you really haven't thought this through. If you're just going to "publish" this on the internet I doubt you'll have anything to worry about. Unless you're badmouthing the places or somehow profiting from use of their name, they likely won't care. Don't use trademarked logos without permission. Do you see Cedar Fair or Six Flags suing every poster on these boards for using the names of their parks/rides? No.

A modern park with a Condor and Jumbo Jet...wow. I need to go there. Does the Condor still run fast enough that the cars swing out?